Packing machine for pulverulent material



1936- K. MIDDELBOE 2,049,745

PACKING MACHINE FOR PULVERULENT MATERIAL Filed June 23, 1934.

' INVENTOR mmhmwq Patented Aug. 4', i936 UNHTED STATES PATENT OFFICE PACKENG MACHINE FOR PULVERULENT MATERl-IAL Kristian Middelboc, Frederiksberg, near Copenhagen, Denmark, assignor to F. L. Smidth & (3a., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application June 23, 1934, Serial No. 732,072 In Great Britain June 28, 1933 2 Claims.

-or the like, and has been developedwith special reference to packing machines of the general character of that shown, for example, in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,851,017; dated March 29, 1932, in which a Weighed quantity of 1 material is filled into a valve bag, the flow of the material being controlled automatically by the weight of the material in the bag. Heretofore, in the operation of such machines,'the material is transported from a capacity storage bin to a smaller receptacle which forms a part of the filling machine and from which it flows into the bag or other still smaller receptacle. It has been proposed also to apply a hand-controlled filling device directly to a capacity storage bin. The transport of material from at ca-' pacity storage bin toa filling machine imposes an expense in time and in apparatus which is unnecessary in some cases and the manual control of the filling is unsatisfactory, particularly as regards accuracy and time consumed. Ithas been the object of. the present invention to overcome the disadvantages referred to and to provide an automatic filling device which is improved in some particulars, as compared with prior filling devices, and can be applied directly to a capacity storage bin thereby making unnecessary one step in the operation of filling as heretofore performed.

In accordance with the present invention the filling and weighing mechanism, automatic in its operation, receives the material to be filled and weighed directly from the capacity storage bin or container and provision is made whereby the material, as it passes toward the filling device, is maintained in a fluent condition and under such head or pressure that the flow into the bag or other receptacle is uniform and is controlled accordingly by the weight of material in the bag, the flow being cut off at once when the predetermined weight of material has entered the bag, without being prolonged as it might and would generally be prolonged if the flow were controlled by hand. The air which is in troduced for the purpose of maintaining the fluent condition of the material is made use of to maintain in part the uniform pressure under which the material flows, a pressure gauge being placed conveniently to the eye of the attendant and provision being made for adjustment or the weighing mechanism to suit different conditions of operation. 7

The invention will be more fully explained hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing in which is illustrated a convenient 5 embodiment of the invention, and in which:

Figure 1 is a. view in sectional elevation of such embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 is a view in sectional elevation on the plane of the broken line 2-2 of Figure 1, 10 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a detail view, also in sectional elevation and on a larger scale, of parts to be referred to.

Figure 4 is a detail View, also on a larger 15 scale, of other parts to be referred to.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention a vertical wall 2 of a capacity storage bin 2 is shown as having a horizontal aperture 2 provided with suitable supporting means 2 0 through which is introduced horizontally into the bin a tube 3 which is partly closed at its inner end, as at 3", but is .open on its upper side, within the bin, as indicated at 3 At its outer end the tube 3 is closed by a plate 4 through a gland at the center of which a shaft 5 passes, being supported by bearings 6 and rotated through a chain 1 by a motor 8. Within the tube 3 the shaft 5 is provided with stirrers 9 by which the cement or other material, to be in- 30 troduced in weighed quantity into the bag or other receptacle, is maintained in constant agitation during the operation of filling. Air under pressure enters the pipe 3 at its bottom and therefore at the bottom of the material in the 35 pipe through a pipe HI which is provided with a pressure gauge II and a cock l2 to control the admission of air. Through such constant agitation of the material by the stirrers 9 and the introduction of air under pressure at the same 40 time and at the bottom of the mass of material the material is maintained in a fluent condition and under such head or pressure that it flows from the tube under the action of gravity at a uniform rate, the air introduced under pressure preventing the bridging of the material in the bin.

The filling and weighing mechanism is attached to the tube 3 and receives the fluent material from 50 the tube through an opening it and, in the embodiment shown, a compressible pipe Hi, from which it is discharged into a filling spout l5, such as that shown, for example, in the Letters Patent above mentioned, a bag to be filled, indicated by 5 broken lines, being supported during the filling upon the filling spout.

A two-armed leveryfulcrumed on a bracket I! on the pipe 3, supports at one end a pendent, vertical frame I8, guided by a bracket it also fixed to the pipe 3 and has dependent therefrom at the other end a weight or weights 20, oVerbalanced by the bag and its contents when the bag is completely filled with material. The filling spout is supported by the frame I8, as hereinafter explained, and as the downward movement of the frame begins, under the influence of the weight of the filled bag, a projection 34 fixed to the frame engages a detent 3i pivoted at 32 and maintained normally in horizontal position by a counterbalance 33 and tilts it downward to the left in Figure 3. In normal position the detent 3! engages and restrains a rod 28 extended from a rotatable spindle 29, mounted in a bracket 30 and forming by its fiat face 29 a detent for a two-armed lever 23, 24 pivoted at 25 on a bracket of the tube 3, the

arm 24 being provided with a latch 21 urged up wardly by a spring 26. When the arm 28 is released by the detent 3i the lever 23, 24 swings counterclockwise, in Figure 3, under the influence of a counterweight 35 and when the lever is swung back to normal position the latch 21, being suitably chanrfered at its upper end, yields downwardly as it contacts with the spindle 29 and then rises into place for contact with the flat face or hp 2% of the spindle.

In the movement of the lever 23, 24 under the influence of the counterweight 35, when released, a stud 2i, carried by the arm 23 of the lever, swings against the compressible ,pipe M and presses it against a stop 22 thereby shutting'off at once the flow of material from the bin and tube into the bag.

That portion of the filling spout M5 on which the bag is supported during filling is inclined somewhat from the horizontal and in order to prevent accidental discharge of the bag from the filling spout before it is filled a presser 35, mounted on a bracket carried by the pendant frame l8, presses the top of the bag against the filling spout.

The filling spout is carried by a bracket Mi, pivoted at w between the two side bars of the pendent frame 13, the swinging of the bracket 40 to release the bag being prevented by a stop 31 pivoted on a bracket 38 of the frame and engaging .a fixed stop 39 carried by the pivoted bracket 40. While the filling of the bagis controlled automatically the filled bag is not discharged from the filling spout automatically but under the control of the attendant. For this purpose there is pivotally mounted on a bracket 33 of the pendent frame a handled detent 31 which normally contacts with a stop 39 carried by the bracket 40 and so prevents the swinging of the bracket and the filling spout and the release of the bag under the influence of the weight of the filled bag. The discharge of therfilled bag is effected by manual movement of the detent 3? thus giving opportunity for the attendant to discharge the bag at his convenience.

As the quantity of material discharged through the pipe l4 in a given time depends to some extent on the head or pressure of the material in the tube 3, the quantity that will flow during the brief time that elapses between the initial downward movement of the frame l8 and the cutting 5 off of the supply through the pipe l4 may vary slightly in accordance with the pressure in the tube 3. To compensate for differences of pressure in the tube 3 the frame 18 may be provided with adjustable weights, as at 42, to accelerate or retard the downward movement of the frame it in accordance with the variation of pressure as indicated by a pressure gauge 4! applied to the tube 3 and the air pressure itself may be controlled by any convenient means, such as the stop 15 cock 12.,

While only one tube, with its attached filling and weighing mechanism, is shown as connected into the bin, it will be understood that more than one such tube may be connected into the same bin 20 so that thefilling of several bags may proceed simultaneously.

Various changes in details of construction and arrangement may be made to suit differences in material or other differences in operation may be 25 made without departing from the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A bag filling device adapted for application to a capacity storage bin, to effect the discharge 30 of the material therefrom in a fluent uniform and aerated flow, the same comprising a tube adapted to be inserted horizontally into a storage bin, said tube having at its inner end an inlet for the admission of the material and having at its outer 35 end a pipe for the discharge of the material, stirrers located within the tube between the inlet and the discharge pipe to agitate the material in the tube, and an air supply pipe connected to a source of air under pressure and introduced into 40 the tube at its bottom below the stirrers to introduce air into the mass of material in the tube at stirrers located within the tube between the inlet and the discharge pipe to agitate the material in the tube, and an air supply pipe connected to a source of air under pressure and introduced into the tube at its bottom below the stirrers to intro duce air into the mass of material in the tube at its bottom while it is agitated by the stirrers to render the material fluent and subject to the action of gravity, and means to control the introduction of air under pressure whereby the pressure of the material in the tube is regulated.

KRISTIAN MIDDELBOE. 

